Of course by now we have heard of the death of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union. He was the country's head of state from 1988 to 1991. He was 91 years old at the time of his death. he was born on March 2, 1931, and died August 30, 2022.
There are many articles in the news about his life. This one, from The Bulwark, by Jonathan Last, spoke to me, for a particular reason.
From the article: The Accidental Great Man - by Jonathan V. Last - The Triad (thebulwark.com)
I am reading The Universal Christ, by Richard Rohr. This is the first of his books I've read. It's an interesting read. He makes an idiosyncratic distinction between Christ (2nd person of the Trinity who was begotten before time began and participated in our creation) and Jesus (Christ made Man who came to earth and lived among us for a time as flesh and blood). Whatever his orthodoxy, he has some wonderful spiritual insights.
I've also just started a Scott Turow novel called The Last Trial. It promises to be a legal thriller, a potboiler. I don't know if I'm doing him an injustice by classifying his novels as beach reads (or, if you're a traveler, airplane reads). His plots have good twists without being too much of a roller-coaster ride, and he does a reasonably good job making characters come to life. I really liked his novels when I was younger, but for some reason, I feel I've grown away from them. I keep reading his new offerings every few years to see if I've changed my mind again. It's like being in a relationship that is not going anywhere but I keep trying to make it work. I'm not far enough yet into this book to know whether I'm going to like it.
Btw, I've mentioned before that I own a Barnes and Noble Nook e-reader. It died some months ago. Supposedly, all the content I've purchased for it over the years is out in the Cloud somewhere, but I'd need a new tablet to resume reading that way. For now, I've resumed going to the library and reading books for free. It works out ok, but it's a little distressing to me that our library, which supposedly is held up in this suburban area as a sort of suburban-library ideal, has fewer books now than it did 20 or 30 years ago. There seem to be quite a few books I've checked out over the years which are no longer there now (yes, I am, on occasion, a re-reader of books). It's rare when a book I want to read is waiting on the shelf. Either I have to be put on a wait list or, just as frequently, I have to request it via interlibrary loan. Those methods work, eventually, but I don't get the instant gratification of downloading a book to a tablet and starting in on it right away.
The first chapter of Lumen Gentium (the Light of Christ) is entitled De Ecclesiae Mysterio (The Mystery of the Church) which is followed by the second chapter De Populo Dei (The People of God) which is the primary metaphor through which we should be viewing the Mystery which is called Ecclesia In Latin and Greek.
Unfortunately, our English word church has strong connotations of clergy and church buildings. We are not going to make much progress toward an authentic synodality with those words.
As a social
scientist, I try to avoid the word Church, rather using the word Catholics and
the adjective Catholic. I would define Catholicism as consisting of human capital composed of those who self-identify
and/or are identified by others as Catholic, social capital consisting of
institutions and social networks that self- identify are identified by others
as Catholic, and of cultural capital (beliefs, ideas, values, symbols) that are
identified as Catholic by Catholics or others.
In invite you to reread Lumen Gentium by making your own translation as I did.
DOGMATIC CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH LUMEN GENTIUM
Simply copy the whole thing into a Word document. Then use the Find/Replace option in word to find all the occurrences of "Church" and replace it with "PEOPLE OF GOD" I use capitals to distinguish this from the documents us of People of God.
Second, I went through the document and replaced all occurrences of PEOPLE OF GOD where the context clearly means Catholics and does not apply to other Christians or people of faith (Jews, Moslems) with the word GATHERING which I consider the best translation of the New Testament word Ecclesia. It applies to household GATHERINGS, city wide GATHERINGS, regional and worldwide GATHERINGS. Occasionally I made a few other changes which are also CAPITALIZED to make things read better such as making substitutions for "men."
Some observations of my diocese's input for Pope Francis's Synod on Synodality suggest that American Catholics are still a long way from seeing themselves as full and responsible stakeholders in the Catholic church.
Just recounting here how I untied a little spiritual knot this morning.
This is my homily for yesterday, the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C. The readings for yesterday are here.
Within the first weeks of the pandemic, I recognized that I would be isolated for at least a year and likely more than two years. My pandemic project was clear from the beginning.
As a member of my parish e-mailed me said when she heard that there would be no more singing in church. "You don't have to worry; you have a fabulous collection of liturgical music!"
That collection had evolved over decades as background music to support the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours.
In high school I realized that there were more options than one for the celebration of the Hours. I had first discovered the Short Breviary for women religious then the full four volume breviary for priests. In college during the Vatican Council, I had sung the Office upstairs with the monks in Latin and downstairs with brothers using Gelineau psalms.
An anthropology course at the University of Seattle in Washington taught by a professor who had studied the First Peoples of the Northwest revealed to me the secret of their great ritual creativity. From early childhood they were encouraged to sing and dance on the peripheries of the celebration so that by the time that they took center stage they could be very original and creative. So the way forward was clear. Collect as much liturgy as possible either personally or by recordings.
The pandemic project become obvious. Collect as much liturgy relevant to the Divine Office as possible on a website so that it would be available to everyone.
I named that project the Virtual Divine Office because I am convinced that the celebration of the Divine Office is every Christian's birth right not just the privilege of clergy and religious. The virtual world makes this possible at any time anywhere.
The Virtual Divine Office, subtitled Songs of the People of God, followed my home music collection of including Anglican, Eastern, and Evangelical music although it is organized around the Rome Rite celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours. However, it is a big step for anyone to begin doing what I have been doing for my whole life. Only specialists are likely to be able to understand and use my personal site. Also. I have been using it a location for many creative liturgical endeavors. The anthropologist was right.
We started watching the most buzz-y Gospel television series, well, ever.
Since the feast day fell on a Monday, it isn't a day of obligation, at least in our archdiocese. Our parish had a Mass for the school kids this morning. My husband was assisting with it, so I went also. All the schools in town started last week. Seems a bit early!
The subject of adoption comes up frequently in the sometimes acrimonious back and forth between pro-choice and pro-life in the wake of the Dobbs decision. Some would have it that adoption is tantamount to child abuse; others that it has only a positive side. I feel that the truth lies somewhere between the child abuse narrative and "all is sunshine and butterflies".
A number of articles have come up lately, including this one on the NCR site a couple of days ago:
America has republished Greeley's 1989 article against the RCIA. Greeley provides not only a critique of the RCIA but also an alternative vision grounded in its general principles.
The alternative vision resides in the fact that Catholicism is as much about diversity as about community. What so many of our parish programs do is submerge diversity in the name of community.
While I have always felt that I could be myself in my work environment, in parish environments I have felt that I not only should check my credentials as a social scientist at the door, but also my master's degree in spirituality, my life time of study of liturgy, scripture, etc. and my four years of experience as a member of a voluntary pastoral staff and defer to whatever lay persons the pastor has anointed to run the parish.
A pastor once made this explicit by telling me that I was just too intellectual for the parish, and needed to be humble so that I would fit in. I resisted the temptation to tell him that I had spent my whole professional life in the company of social workers and consumers who were very happy to have me as friend. I never had to check my intellectuality at the door; rather many seemed to be delighted to have an intellectual treat them as equals.
“THE R.C.I.A.,” I have been told often in the last couple of years, “is the answer.”
I respectfully submit that it is not the answer, even assuming that we know what the question is, which I don’t think anyone does anymore. The Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RC.I.A.) is just that—a rite. When it is imposed as an obligatory paradigm, it violates the freedom of the Spirit and the integrity and the dignity of individual human persons. I protest against it even when it is imposed as an obligation on those who have never been baptized. I protest against it a fortiori when it is imposed on those who have already been baptized. Finally, I protest against neo-gnostic oppression of which the R.C.I.A. is only the most recent, though possibly the most offensive, manifestation.
[The RCIA} is spun out of historicist and academic concerns and displays no sensitivity to either the nature of contemporary religious experience or the cultural environments where it is to be exercised. (How can you call people the “elect” or require “scrutinies” or babble about “mystagogy” in the final decade of the 20th century?)
At a very general level it makes two important points that have been forgotten in the past and of which contemporary Catholics needed to be reminded—that becoming a Christian is a process and not an event, and that it is a process which of necessity should involve some sort of community. I would have called these two “points” guidelines, save that in contemporary clerical culture “guidelines” means “rigid laws” (just as “dialogue” means accepting a bishop’s order). For all I know those who actually drafted this rite intended nothing more than making these two points. Yet, the process, contrary to what is thought by those in the R.C.I.A. movement who interpret the document, is not necessarily that which is administered by the parish “staff.” and the community is not necessarily the parish “R.C.I.A. Team.”
THERE WERE REASONS a millennium and a half ago to require sponsorship and scrutinies to make sure that only worthy people approached the Eucharist—the bishop literally did not know anything about those who presented themselves for admission to the church. There were also reasons to exclude such prospective Christians from the Eucharistic Prayer. The Discipline of the Secret protected the church from the spies of the Roman Empire.
The empire hasn’t been around for a long time. And neither have the other assumptions behind a literal imposition of the rite. There are no grounds for ordering anyone out of church after the homily. Such behavior is an offensive and insulting anachronism. I did it once, caught by surprise, and still feel guilty about it. I’ll never do it again. I’m not an elderly Irish canon from the turn of the century with a blackthorn stick in hand. What right do I have to tell anyone that she or he cannot sit at the Lord’s table?
***
MY FOUR CASES, it will be said, are exceptions. Sorry—everyone is an exception. Everyone is unique. The Holy Spirit still blows whither She wills. The uniqueness, that which is most special about each person who comes to the rectory, is precisely the message, to those who preside over the rectory, of the Spirit of Variety and Pluralism. We have no right to try to arrange Her schedule, budget Her time, routinize Her grace. No one’s spiritual pilgrimage fits a formula. No one can be run through an automatic process. No one can be forced to jump through a series of hoops that have been designed a priori by liturgists and religious educators.
Am I merely saying that the R.C.I.A. must be more flexible and more responsive to individual human needs (and thus the devious workings of the Spirit). I am saying that it must be so flexible and so responsive that it will be unrecognizable to its enthusiasts—and I mean those who write the books and run the conferences and edit the newsletters and pontificate on the tapes and staff the national offices.
If I am told that it has been mandated by the bishops, I respond that such a mandate and a dollar bill will get you a ride on the Chicago subway. Moreover, an appeal to hierarchical authority comes with very poor grace from those who dismiss the bishops when they talk about celibacy or the ordination of women and broadly hint that infant baptism should be abolished so that all Catholics would be processed through the R.C.I.A.
IF THE R.C.I.A. is at most a very sketchy outline— suggesting community and processes for those who are not Catholics, it has no place at all in the spiritual pilgrimage of those who have already been baptized. They are by definition not catechumens (conceding for the sake of the argument the validity of the term) and should not be treated like catechumens.
Using the R.C.I.A. as a model for all sacramental preparation is, alas, typical of the resurgent clericalism of the Catholic Church in the United States. Instead of viewing a request for a sacrament as a sign of the Spirit at work (however tenuously) and joyously and enthusiastically responding to that request, the New Clericalist (who need not be a priest) converts the sacramental experience into an obstacle course, a series of barriers to be surmounted, a list of tests to be passed. (Young people have told me that they “passed” the psychological tests their priests gave them and hence were free to get married!)
Another unpredictable result of the overturn of Roe?
Americans overwhelmingly would like to be able to vote on an abortion measure on their state ballot, an exclusive USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll finds. And if they had the chance, they would oppose efforts to ban the procedure by almost 2-1.Seven in 10 say they would support using a ballot measure to decide abortion rights in their state, an idea backed across party lines, by 73% of Democrats, 77% of Republicans and 67% of independents. Democrats are the most energized on the issue; 43% say they "strongly support" putting abortion on the ballot.If there were a ballot measure in their state, those polled would vote by 54%-28% in favor of making abortion legal. Democrats support legal abortion in their state by 7-1 (76%-10%) and independents by 2-1 (52%-27%). Among Republicans, 34% would support abortion rights and 54% would oppose them, a worrisome fissure for the party that has long been identified with the anti-abortion movement.At particular risk for the GOP are two groups of swing voters. Suburbanites by 56%-26% say they would vote to support abortion rights in a ballot measure. And women by 60%-25% would support an abortion rights initiative, significantly more than the backing among men of 47%-32%.
Update 8/10/2022 10:42 pm CDT: I attended the mass this evening, did get drafted to help out at mass, and ended up working a booth for a while afterward as well. I'll post my report at the bottom of the post.
Yesterday, Kansas voters had the chance to declare that abortion isn't constitutionally protected in their state. They declined.
